The Wandering Blade
by Smilin Jack
Summary: I've only known to charge forward into endless battle, gripping fate with both hands, I have now shattered my fate, Can I shatter my curse as well? takes place after chapter 197, oc
1. Prolog

For the tenth time today Ichigo ran out of his classroom, claiming to need to use the restroom. For the tenth time today Ichigo's badge screamed out "Hollow!" For the tenth time today he raced across town shunpoing to where the hollow was located. The tenth time that day he drew Zangetsu.

The hollow was rather small for the hollows that had appeared today. It was small and roughly had the mask that resembled a mouse, and a body that was closer to that of a horse with claws. Ichigo planned on taking it out in one blow, but For the first time that day a Garganta opened up, as it opened Ichigo could see the black sandals and the white cloth pants of the person standing behind it.

Ichigo thought back to the event two days ago, where two arrancar had invaded the park, he was unable to protect Orihime then, and that had sent him into a state of depression. However yesterday Rukia had taken him out to have some sense beaten into him. He hardened his resolve, this time he would not fail.

Before the Garganta was fully opened he released his bankai for the fight to come shouting , "Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu!" he then leaped at the Garganta as it fully opened.

A blade stopped his attack just before he could hit. The blade was a daito that had no grip or guard, but the entire length of the sword was wrapped in a dark purple wrap, covering the blade. The person holding the blade had a mask that covered the top half of his face. at this range Ichigo could see that the mask was severely cracked and looked like a slight hit could be enough to shatter it completely. Ichigo could see his eyes, they had a dark grey iris. The man that those eyes belonged to pushed Ichigo back causing him to slide several yards before stopping.

Now that he was far enough away Ichigo noticed that the man's coat was ripped open and there were large gashes covering his torso, blood was pouring out of them rather quickly. Ichigo went to finish the fight knowing that with those wounds the man could not fight for much longer. the man blocked again and this time locked blades with Ichigo.

With his free left hand the man grabbed onto the blade of Zangetsu and said, almost in a whisper, simply, "Stop this, Tensa Zangetsu." Then he released the blade as it reverted to its shikai form. Ichigo was stunned and was forced back easily by the man. Ichigo got back into a defensive stance knowing that he was at a huge disadvantage, wounded or not, if the man could seal away his bankai. The man looked disinterested and turned away from Ichigo heading towards the hollow who was pinned by Ichigo's reitsu. Ichigo suddenly realized that he could not feel any reitsu from this man at all. As if to perplex Ichigo more the man put his hand on the hollows head and watched as the hollow collapsed into a sleeping young boy plus.

"Sleep peacefully little one, " the man said as he touched the boy's forehead with his thumb and the light of a konso shone and the boy disappeared. Then the man looked back at Ichigo disappeared and reappeared in front of Ichigo with his hand on the back of Zangetsu. He closed his eyes for a moment.

In an attempt to get him off of his sword Ichigo punched him in the face with all his might, feeling the mask crack underneath the force. The man flew back from the blow, landed on his back, and began to cough up some blood. Ichigo walked over to the man prepared to finish him off when he noticed that the mask was broken completely and he was knocked out. For the first time that day, Ichigo put his sword away without purifying a Hollow.


	2. Patience

At Karakura High

"Where is he?" Rukia asked referring to Ichigo, " He's been gone for an hour and he's almost missed lunch."

Chad, Orihime, Uryu were eating lunch on the roof with Rukia, they had positioned Ichigo's body like it was sleeping in one of the corners. Chad shrugged, in response to Rukia's question, while Orihime attempted to say I don't know with food in her mouth.

"Maybe he's having trouble with it," Uryu stated sarcastically.

"No, I've kept track of him by sensing his reitsu, after he finished it he's been running around town," Rukia responded, "looks like he's finally coming this way though."

A couple of minutes later Ichigo landed on the roof and got back into his body and in an attempt to make up for lost time was inhaling his food, in between bites he attempted to explain what had happened.

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full, idiot," Rukia said while smacking him in the back of the head, causing him to choke on his food for a second.

"Damned midget, are you tryin' to kill me?" Ichigo responded after clearing the blockage in his throat.

"What did you do after knocking the arrancar out?" Ishida asked quickly trying to diffuse the situation so they could at least have something meaningful accomplished during lunch.

"Well, I thought that when a hollows mask broke it would be purified or whatever, right?" Ichigo looked at Rukia for confirmation nodded, "I assumed this extended to arrancar as well, but when his mask broke he passed out. I thought that we could question him about Aizen , so I brought him to Urahara to make sure he didn't die."

"So currently there is an arrancar, with the power to seal zanpakuto, and an unknown release, being guarded by a shinigami if he wakes up?" Uryu asked incredulously, "How dense you have become Ichigo."

"Hey," Ichigo started defending himself, getting louder towards the end of his statement, "Urahara can take care of himself zanpakuto or no, besides Tessai can put some rather strong bakudo if that is needed, so don't act like I didn't think of that, Uryu!"

At this the bell rang for them to return to class and as the reentered the building, Ichigo said, "If you want to ask him questions, I plan on going immediately after school to see if he is awake yet."

* * *

Tick...

_1,234..._

Tick...

_1,235..._

Tick...

_1,236..._

Crash

"Jinta, you should be more careful, you don't want to get hurt," a quiet voice said calmly.

_damn lost count..._

" Just be quiet, Ururu! Help me clean this up," another voice whispered loudly.

_'Jinta' I suppose that means the quiet ones 'Ururu'..._

_Maybe I should try to talk to them, they sound like kids after all. But , they could be enemies, or working with them. Well, as long as I don't interact with them they are neither friend nor foe, and not knowing is better than an enemy right now, so it's better to leave this box closed I suppose. well, back to the ticking..._

Tick...

_1..._

Tick...

_2..._

Tick...

_Damn, my nose itches now..._

He heard the door slam open.

_Itchy, Itchy, Itchy, just stop thinking about the nose! _

"Hey Hat-n-clogs, I'm back!" a voice shouted.

_Hey, that's the guy who punched me. _

He heard several sets of footsteps get closer.

"Hello, Kurosaki-san I see you brought some friends, Greetings, Sado-san, Rukia-san, Orihime-san, Ishida-san, I trust you are all well?"

_Must be 'hat-n-clogs', wonder what his name actually is, so that makes eight people here, and here I am lying here still not sure if their foes or just dense allies. I'm gonna have to get 'Kurosaki' back. I think I missed something._

" Yeah, he's still unconscious, he hasn't moved since you brought him here." Hat-n-clogs said, opening a door, "He's in here, but I have some other matters to take care of so I'll be back."

"He doesn't look as old as I thought by your description," a male voice said

"I didn't get a good look I was kinda rushed," 'Kurosaki' said.

"I hope you didn't make him comatose, look how badly he's beaten up, you didn't need to beat him up this bad!" a female voice asked.

_Hey, I like her..._

"We could figure out what questions we're going to ask, like what do we want to know about Aizen," the male voice said.

_sounds like their gonna wait for me to get up, plus by the sounds of it their aren't on Aizen's side, maybe I should get up and try to explain. But, they could be enemies of mine but not allies of Aizen... Arghh! I wish I could read minds, that would make this easier, I know what I'll do I'll wait until I know for sure if I should open this box...what the hell?.._

He felt someone close to his face.

"I think he's about to wake up, his eyes are moving," a second female voice said.

_Shouldn't've looked, shouldn't've - Her breath is tickling my nose, now I gotta sneeze ah ah ah..._

Ahchoo!

He shot up with the sneeze and head-butted a surprised looking girl with a large chest, orange hair, and grey eyes.

a noise escaped his throat as he put his hands on his forehead and rolled on the table for an instant before the other girl shouted, "Bakudo 1: Sai!"

The force of his arms slamming behind his back caused him to roll off the table he was on, slamming into the ground face first, "Ow..." he uttered, before looking at the group with weapons drawn, "definitely shouldn't've opened that box."

* * *

A/N

If you read, please review, otherwise I have no idea how i'm doin'


	3. The Twilight Enigma

"Ow," the man said as he pushed himself into a sitting position using his head (his arms still bound by bakudo) after getting situated he looked at everyone with their weapons drawn, gave as friendly a smile as he could and said, "Hi, um... " dropping his smile for a moment he looked at the girl he had just head-butted, "sorry 'bout that."

As soon as he said that the girl's mouth ran faster than he could keep track of, he kept his smile and nodded, catching glimpses of her head being hard and a rather extraneous explanation that she was alright before she said, " ...my names Orihime by the way." which she finished with a smile.

A few seconds later it registered with him and he said, "Pleasure to meet you."

Orihime's face fell after a second, "I hoped you would tell us your name."

"I'll keep a hold of that for now, I think," he said, losing his smile.

"and why would that be?" the other girl asked with her sword ready in case he tried anything.

"Well, my arms are currently bound so I can't do anything, and everyone is ready to kill me at, what I am sure is, merely a drop of a hat. In case you don't know, that is not what one would do if they had any hope of meaningful conversation. And from what I can tell you want to know what Aizen's plans are, but I'm sorry I can't help ya there. Alright, I'm sorry but can you take off this binding, I think my shoulder - stab - wounds are reopening."

"No," the girl stated flatly.

"Fine, how 'bout this, I'll tell you my name, and not try to escape if you guys introduce yourselves first and release this binding," looking at their faces, he added, " I'm serious, I'll answer any questions that I can."

Nobody even made a move after he said that until, "Ishida," the Quincy stated, "Ishida Uryu."

"Chad," the giant stated.

"If you guy think this is fine, Kuchiki Rukia," she said as she released his arms from the binding.

The man stood up, walked in front of Ichigo, with a friendly smile stated, " 'kay, Hello Ichigo, My names Kuromisuteri, Pleasure to meet you." Then with all his might he punched Ichigo in the face, sending him flying, leaving everyone else with a surprised look on their face.

"What the Hell was that for?" the Orange haired soul reaper bellowed.

"Oh, I'm sorry I thought that how you greeted people here," Kuromisuteri stated, with a grin, as Rukia rebound him, and Ichigo flattened him with a kick to the chest, "worth it," he stated as he slid on his back to where he started.

" Your names a mouthful," Orihime stated, to prevent the two from starting to fight.

"Yeah, I know. If you want, seeing as it's more conventional to have two names, you can call me Kuro, and the rest will be my last name, that fine with you?" he asked Orihime as he sat back up.

After a second Kuro closed his eyes and his arms slightly glowed a deep violet color tinged with blacks, reds and oranges for an instant, and the binding broke. he then stood up with his hands up saying, "Sorry, but I would rather be able to act, and this is part of the deal. I'm not going to escape, and punchin' that jackass was a one- time thing, besides I'm in no position to fight either because of this." As he finished his sentence he pulled his collar down a bit to show that there was a collar around his neck.

"This thing prevents me from doing pretty much anything more than what you just saw, so don't worry about fighting me, I'm not stupid," he continued. Looking down at the remains of his coat, he started to remove the tattered rags that were left, revealing many scabs from sword wounds that had not yet healed and innumerable scars that ranged from burn scars to bite marks to seemingly anything else imaginable from countless battles. After throwing the rags to the side he sat down on the table and asked, "I imagine that there are questions you wanted to ask me?"

For the first time Ichigo took a moment to memorize his features, He had raven - black hair that was unkempt and long enough to partially cover his dark grey eyes. His eyes held an even look that never seemed to waiver. He looked only slightly older than Ichigo, and only about an inch taller. He was relatively well built, more like an athlete than a bodybuilder. He carried himself in a relaxed manner as if there was nothing wrong.

Before he could continue memorizing his features Ishida asked a question, "What are the strongest Arrancar under Aizen's control?"

"That would be the Espada, they are the top ten strongest in his army, they are numbered, with lower numbers being stronger than higher ones."

Rukia asked the next question, " who are they and what are their powers?"

Kuro thought for a second and began to list them off, "Number ten is Yammy Llargo, I'll get to his release in a bit; Number nine is Aaroniero Arruruerie, his release is Glotoneria, which allows him to use the abilities of every hollow he has ever devoured, I'll warn you though he devoured a hollow that allows him to look like a soul reaper and even use his Zanpakuto, so be careful; Number seven is Zommari Rureaux, he is very fast before release, and cannot move after release, he can take over a part of someone's body by looking at the part, and his release allows him to control fifty things in that same fashion; Number six is Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, whose power is simply mass destruction, and he is strong; Number five is Nnoitra Gilga Whose power is an incredibly strong Heirro; Number four is Ulquiorra Cifer, He is fast, and strong with high speed regeneration, after release he is unbelievably fast and strong; Number three is Tia Harribel, who can control water; Number two is Baraggan Luisenbarn who can age things, after release anything that gets too close instantly turns to bone and rots away, what I'm getting at is that he is very dangerous, stay away from him; Number one is Coyote Starrk, who can fragment his soul and release a torrent of cero; Number Zero is, again, Yammy Llargo, whose release makes him stronger the angrier he gets."

"Who is number eight?" Ishida asked, "and why didn't you mention him?"

Kuro looked at him and for the first time there was an anger that roiled under Kuro's voice as he said, "The bastard's name is Szayel Aporro Granz, he gave me these wounds, and I killed him, end of story."

For a short time everyone was quiet before Ichigo stated, "You know Kuromisuteri is an odd name..."

"It means 'Black Twilight', not 'Black Mystery', also I believe that there is a bit of wisdom of one who lives in a glass house should not throw stones, Ichigo."

"What do you mean my names odd? It means 'one who protects' and not 'strawberry' damnit," Ichigo stated with a twitch.

"What are you talking about, why would someone name their son 'Strawberry' fer cryin' out loud!" Kuro shouted back, "I figured your name means 'one - five'!"

Everyone deadpanned when he said that wondering why that came to his mind first.

"What?" Kuro asked.

"It's just nobody ever comes up with that, everyone assumes it means 'Strawberry,' at first," Rukia answered.

"Why?"

After getting his thoughts back on track, Ichigo interrupted, " I meant, judging by the Espada's names that it's an odd name for a Arrancar to have."

"What?" Kuro asked, dumbfounded.

"You're an Arrancar, your name is odd compared to the others," Ichigo said slowly.

Kuro ran his hands through his hair several times quickly then wiped his face, then looked around to see if a mask fragment had landed around him, then proceeded to ask, "Why would you assume that? I have no mask fragment, do I?"

"You're not an Arrancar?" Ichigo asked.

"Do I look like one?"

" I can say he isn't," Hat-n-Clogs stated as he walked into the room carrying the sword that Kuro originally had, then to Kuro he stated, "Welcome to the Urahara Shoten, I'm the shopkeeper, Urahara!"

"Kuro Misuteri," he responded, _so that's his name,_ _I think I like 'hat-n-clogs' better._

Urahara held the sword up slightly and stated, "I ran some tests on this, because there are some very noticeable differences between an Arrancars Zanpakuto, and a Shinigami Zanpakuto, such as the nature of the power, and my tests show that this has no hollowfied Reitsu, so this is obviously a Shinigami Zanpakuto, but there is one other difference between the two types of zanpakuto, and that is the spirit of that zanpakuto, an Arrancar is in essence the spirit of the zanpakuto, and a shinigami's is a spirit separate from the wielder of it, however, like I said this is a Shinigami Zanpakuto, through and through."

Urahara tossed the sword to Kuro, who caught it easily, before continuing, "So, yeah, he's not an arrancar."

"Thanks, Urahara," Kuro stated as he tested the weight of the sword.

"Couldn't you have checked that before you put the collar on?" Ishida asked.

Kuro was the one to respond, "No, this collar was on before I got here."

Ichigo looked moderately puzzled, and asked, "Then if you are a shinigami, why were you wearing a mask when you got here?"

"First, I've never thought of myself as a shinigami," Kuro said, "I took the mask from an arrancar's fraccion because there was still enough hollow reitsu on it to disguise me as one, because this collar seals the rest of my reitsu, so the only feeling the reitsu I would give off is that particular fraccion, so I could sneak around better, after I killed that espada I saw an opportunity to escape using a hollow's garganta, I took it. I ended up being near where it had come out, so to show appreciation for letting me hitch a ride, I gave it a proper Spirit Burial. That's where I met you..." His word trailed off as he turned pale, wobbled for a moment, and slumped to his knees, before he fell over Chad caught him. He picked him back up as Kuro looked up at Chad, still leaning on him and said, "Sorry..." in a rather dazed manner.

"I would suggest letting him rest up a little more, before you ask many more questions," Urahara stated, "He has lost a lot of blood, so the fact he's only feeling the effects now is admirable."

"When you wake up, you should get ahold of us, rather than sit here and count ticking," Ichigo stated.

"Yeah... I'll remember that..." Kuro said as Chad was laying him back down on the table.

Everyone said their goodbyes, and left leaving Orihime and Urahara behind, Orihime had stayed behind to heal his wounds, after she was done she left.

A few hours later, Urahara checked on him to see him sitting up checking his now non - existent wounds.

When he noticed Urahara in the doorway Kuro said, "Thanks, Urahara."

"Yeah, yeah, no problem, " Urahara responded, "I've made some arrangements for somewhere for you to live long term, I have no more room here with Renji living here, tonight you'll stay here then tomorrow I'll get you a gigai and I'll ship you off, the day after you'll go to high school, so be prepared for that."

"Got it, thanks again," Kuro said as he laid down and went to sleep.

* * *

A/n

Review if you can, so I can know how I'm doing, thanks.

I plan on tring to update Fridays from now on, so I'll try to keep my word with that :)  
(I dont need Sleep Thursdays)


	4. White Sister

Kuro was wearing his new attire, a plain black t-shirt, dark colored cargo pants, and a white hooded sweatshirt with the front left open. He was walking down the street towards the apartment he was supposed to stay at. He stopped at a street corner and adjusted the shopping bags he was carrying. Then he checked the directions Urahara had given him and turned down another street.

* * *

Ichigo was sitting in his classroom staring out the window with his perpetual scowl on, something had bothered him about Kuro.

He was thinking about the confrontation with Kuro at the Urahara Shop.

_That entire event seemed strange, _Ichigo thought to himself, _nobody showed any mistrust towards him, and he seemed so different from when I first saw him, when he stepped out of the Garganta there was no softness in him, but when he woke up he was too agreeable. There is something that's strange about the questions too. Ishida had wanted to know more information about who he was, if I remember correctly, but when he was there it was like those questions weren't important to him. In fact, shortly after we left he suddenly remembered his forgotten questions._

Before he was able to think of the strange occurrences that surrounded Kuro, his badge screeched out "Hollow, Hollow," at the same instant lunch started.

_Looks like I'm missing lunch again,_ Ichigo thought, as he ran out of the room.

* * *

Kuro had just finished unloading the clothes he bought that day, then he looked around the apartment. It was small, barely big enough for a small kitchenette, a bed, a small dresser, and a bathroom, old, and it was obvious that it was poorly taken care of, with a worn out carpet, cracked paint and the door on the bathroom no longer locked. He had put his sword in the corner when he first arrived. Now it was time to find out the amount of damage control he was going to have to do. He reached into his coat and grabbed his other possession out of his coat, a white mask. The mask was simple, it was a smooth white on the surface with only two holes in the shape of semicircles crooked towards the center as if they were cartoonish "angry eyes" and the bottom half consisted of four triangular teeth starting from the center of the mask to the bottom, and five teeth going back up to fill the gaps of the other teeth. After pensively looking at the mask he set it down on the bed as he leaned against the back of the kitchenette.

_Wake up, _He shouted to the inside of his head. After a few seconds he shouted it again until he finally heard a response.

_I'm up! I'm up!,_ the voice responded rather groggily.

A few seconds later the mask disappeared and replacing it was a girl who looked about fourteen years old. She had incredibly pale skin and silver waist - length hair, and was wearing a pure white shihakusho. Her lips were black along with her nails. Her hair was currently in a mess and she was rubbing her eyes to get the sleep out of them, then she yawned and opened her grey eyes, they had black circles underneath them, and asked gruffly, "What?" as she looked clearly annoyed for having been woken up.

Unperturbed, Kuro simply stated, "While I was knocked out, did you interact with the shinigami in this area?"

"No," She stated flatly.

He stared at her pensively before saying, " What happened?"

She huffed, crossed her arms and stated, "You think I'm lying."

"Yes."

She glared at him as hard as she could, "Yeah, so?"

"I just want to know one thing then."

"What?"

"Did you use any of your abilities on them?"

"Yeah, does it matter?"

"Let me just say this, if you remove 'distrust' when you stop using your power the distrust returns, it doesn't disappear," He stated, "It will be more difficult to get them to trust us now than before."

"Sorry," she whispered, with a deflated look on her face, "I didn't want us to get captured again."

He put a hand on her head and messed with her hair a little, "Do not worry, I will figure something out, but if you meet them again, do not use your abilities on them, and if you can try to help repay our debt, I have no doubt that at least one of them noticed by now, and remember, they are not enemies."

"Besides," he teased, after a moment, "Our personalities are not similar at all, and acting is not one of your strong suits, so Ichigo probably noticed a difference, between the fight and the shop."

After a few seconds looking at her depressed expression, he decided to cheer her up by saying, "Just so you know, I picked some extra clothes up for you so you can leave at night while I'm asleep."

She perked up hearing that, "Really?"

"Yes, but I hope you are not hungry, because the downside is that the money that was left over from what Urahara gave us after two sets of clothes was only enough for a box of crackers."

"That's all the food we've got?" She asked calmly, despite the tick on her forehead.

"Yes," he stated, without losing his pensive look.

She dove at him as she was flying through the air he ducked underneath her, then did a handstand putting his feet on her arms and pining her to the ceiling.

As she was up there she let her arms and legs dangle, and smiled not letting Kuro see it as her hair made it difficult to see her face.

"You look like a cat," Kuro stated with a hint of a smile on his face.

She clawed his legs playfuly for a moment before she said, "Let me down."

He carefully lowered her so that she would not fall before he stood up himself.

"I'm going back to sleep, so don't wake me up, 'kay," She stated.

"You thought of a name yet?" he asked calmly.

"No," she stated before her body began to dissolve and reform into the mask.

* * *

Ichigo was returning from the hollow's purification, the part that took longest was getting there and back, the hollow had not even seen him coming before he purified it. He was glad for the distraction though, he knew what he was going to do that night, he was going to confront Kuro.

* * *

a/n

Thanks to KuroiTori-sama for his review, so you know I'll try to keep your suggestions in mind, so I'm saying I'll try to improve.

If you read please review, otherwise I don't know how I'm doing.

also, I'll try to keep my promise about Fridays still.

p.s. If you can guess what each of the oc's are you get a cookie.


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